Co-design readiness: Allocating Resources
The success of co-design initiatives depends on effective resource allocation. This blog outlines practical steps for organisations to show their commitment to co-design by allocating the necessary resources. These include setting a budget, forming dedicated teams, and ensuring fair payment for those with lived experience. Such measures are vital for laying the groundwork for successful co-design efforts and indicate an organisation's readiness for meaningful collaboration and impactful solutions.
Why resource allocation is important in co-design?
The 'Resource Allocation' domain examines the organisation's commitment to allocate necessary financial, time, and spatial resources for effective co-design.
It also explores the equity and adequacy of compensation for people with lived experience participating in these initiatives. Without appropriate resourcing, co-design processes are destined to fail.
Resource allocation co-design readiness assessment questions
Questions to ask yourself to gauge your whether your organisation meaningfully allocates resources for co-design:
Does my organisation effectively allocate human resources to enable staff to focus on co-design efforts?
Does my organisation provide resources for external co-design facilitation when it's needed and appropriate?
Does my organisation account for and allocate resources to cover additional co-design-related expenses such as venue hire and catering?
Does my organisation offer remuneration that reflects the level of involvement required from participants with lived experience in co-design activities?
Does my organisation plan ahead and ensure resources are available to implement co-design findings?
Tangible ways that you can allocate resources to increase your organisational readiness for co-design
If your organisation has scored low on this domain or you are looking for tips on how to allocate organisational resources to improve the effectiveness of future co-design processes, here are some tangible examples that your organisation could commit to:
Advocate for resources: if a funder is directing you to do co-design work as part of your contract, be open and transparent with them about the costs to your organisation and what resourcing would be needed to do a good job.
Budget allocation for co-design: establish a dedicated budget line for co-design activities, ensuring sufficient financial resources are available for essential expenses like venue hire, external facilitation, and catering. Transparency in budget allocation also shows a clear financial commitment to co-design.
Remuneration framework for lived experience participation: develop a clear remuneration framework that outlines compensation rates for individuals with lived experience participating in co-design activities. This framework should ensure that compensation is equitable and commensurate with the degree of involvement.
Dedicated co-design teams: allocate dedicated staff or create special teams focused on co-design efforts, ensuring that there are human resources expressly committed to leading and managing co-design initiatives. It shouldn't however fall on the one team to do all co-design related work but having a team to help support co-design efforts is critical.
About the Beacon Strategies organisational co-design readiness assessment tool
The Beacon Strategies Organisational Co-Design Readiness Assessment Tool is an instrument that has been designed to evaluate an organisation's preparedness and capability to engage in effective co-design practices.
The tool is based on a combination of our insights in delivering co-design work but also inspired by the work of co-design thought leaders from Australia and beyond regarding the ‘enablers’ that organisations can have in place to deliver co-design effectively. This tool focuses on key domains that are central to delivering a ‘good’ co-design process. This tool isn’t academic in any way, it has simply been constructed to give your organisation an insight into how you can give your co-design activities the best chance to succeed.
To assess your organisation's readiness for co-design and to learn more about embedding effective co-design practices, access the Beacon Strategies Organisational Co-Design Readiness Assessment Tool.
For further information and resources, visit our co-design homepage.
